Kendall, Kerr counties prepare to sue over opioid drug abuse

Sean Baker, an outreach worker with the Center for Health Care Services in San Antonio, explains to Liz, a heroin addict, how to administer Narcan nasal spray to stop a drug overdose.

Sean Baker, an outreach worker with the Center for Health Care...

BOERNE — Declaring that their constituents must be protected from the threat posed by opioid drugs, Kendall County commissioners on Monday authorized the filing of a lawsuit against “various drug manufacturers, developers, suppliers and others.”

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Kerr County commissioners also decided Monday to pursue a similar lawsuit related to the opioid epidemic that has crippled parts of the U.S. In Bexar County, commissioners took the same step in October.

The Kendall County officials chose two law firms to work on a contingency basis to seek reimbursement of money spent by the county to combat the opioid epidemic on services such as law enforcement, emergency medical help and the incarceration of drug abusers.

“I think the right thing for us to do is to proceed forward with this,” Kendall County Judge Darrel Lux said after commissioners had conferred behind closed doors for about 20 minutes with attorney Chris Byrd.

Byrd said he’s local counsel for the lead lawyers for the litigation, Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett, P.C., which he said already filed several such suits on behalf of counties in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

Byrd said he expects the suit would be filed by March in U.S. District Court in San Antonio and predicted it will be similar to litigation his associates already filed by Upshur County against more than 20 drug and health companies.

The causes of action in that case include claims of public nuisance, common law fraud, negligence, gross negligence, violations of the Texas Controlled Substances Act and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The commissioners also agreed to hire Martin Walker P.C. as special counsel, also with fees for services to be paid by the county only if it recovers money on its damage claims.

In Kerr County, the commissioners hired a different set of attorneys to pursue litigation over opioid abuse.

A resolution, approved on a 3-1 vote with Commissioner Harley Belew dissenting, cites allegations that opioid manufacturers and other would-be defendants engaged in “false and fraudulent marketing resulting in addiction to opioids.”

Several law firms have actively been pitching area counties to initiate litigation over opioids, which they often liken to past suits filed against the tobacco industry.

“I do not like litigation,” said Kerr County Commissioner Jonathan Letz after Monday’s meeting, “but these lawsuits have already started nationwide and, from the taxpayers’ standpoint, not participating could have a negative impact on the county, financially.”

The professional services agreement approved by Kerr County also requires the outside lawyers to work on a contingency basis, County Judge Tom Pollard said, noting, “Their fee is 35 percent of whatever we recover. It doesn’t cost us anything if we don’t recover anything.”

The lawyers hired there work with Watts, Guerra LLP, The Gallagher Law Firm, Fibich, Leebrom, Copeland and Briggs, and Davis & Santos, P.C., according to the resolution.

One of the first tasks facing the lawyers in the litigation planned by Kerr and Kendall counties will be to develop an estimate of the monetary damages they have incurred due to opioids.

“I’ve been told that it’s going to make the tobacco litigation look like child’s play in terms of the amount of damages involved,” Pollard said.

More than 100 Bexar County residents died from opioid-related overdoses in 2015, which means opioid overdoses led to almost six deaths per 100,000 in the county, according to an analysis by the San Antonio Express-News.